THE LAST HOMELY HOUSE ※ RIVENDELL ※ LOG 2

[wildermods]

THE LAST HOMELY HOUSE
OOC POST
The group is told to take a week of rest in the Last Homely House as the injured and sick among them heal. The Elves promise them that at the end of that week, there will be a great Council, with representatives of several peoples in attendance.

Until then, they can wander the peaceful halls of Rivendell, which are filled with travelers from all over the Wilderlands who are making a rest stop while they travel through the lands of Middle-Earth.

The most notable part of Rivendell is the Hall of Fire, a great feast hall where people can eat, drink, and be merry. This is the great social hall of Rivendell, where the Elves and their visitors share news of lands far beyond, tell stories, or perform music. The music here almost sounds divine, especially when the Elves sing and play, but they're just as eager to hear songs from other lands, so if any of the squad decide to share, they'll be glad to listen.

Some of the hall's guests are a touch more lively than the others, like a party of dwarves staying at Rivendell. Their stories are a mite more adventurous and if you get in their good graces, they might be willing to share some of the beer they brought with them. Listening to their stories or their talk about their craftmanship is a way to get into their good graces.

The Elves love learning, so there are libraries the group is allowed to browse, though they mostly only contain tales of Middle-Earth (for now), though the Elves seem to be collecting what books about other lands they can. These libraries often have viewing stations with telescopes pointing at the sky. The Elves have been almost delighted by the changing skies, enjoying the challenge of trying to understand how the sky has been knitting itself together with the addition of new worlds.

There are also beautiful balconies here, overlooking the gorge and the waters below, and terraced gardens filled with flowers, bushes, and flowering trees. Their rooms are open to the outdoors and have beds that seem grown into the shape of bed-frames instead of carved. The bathrooms actually have running water. The Elves have figured out how to direct the clean running waters of the gorge in primitive indoor plumbing. Water for hot baths has to be heated first in brass cauldrons over coal braziers before getting dumped into the bath.

It's time for the squad to rest, eat, and regroup. If a great Council is going to be called involving them, it might be a good idea to make sure they go into it as a united front, lest decisions about their fate be made for them.

---

NOTES
✦ Joint log: Since this camp period won't be particularly long, everything will take place in a joint log. Players can post starters with prompts for others and tag into other players' prompts.

✦ Post in actionspam format. Plots and mod-run events in the game are meant to be in actionspam format to keep a brisk pace.

✦ Cursed Weapons/Powers: So they know about how they'll be treated: those with cursed weapons and dark powers will be tolerated by the Elves after entry. While they'll get the same general treatment, the Elves around them may at times seem uncomfortable. Those with cursed weapons will only be distrusted a little, as the weapons themselves will seem more suspicious than their bearers. Those with dark powers or some kind of dark nature (such as being a vampire, Necromancer mage, werewolf, etc.) will be treated with the greatest distrust.

✦ Fairy Swaps: The Elves may be slightly alarmed by the Brugh fairy swaps but get over it easily. However, if the character swapped in is one of the "dark" characters, the swap might be extra cause for alarm. (A potential prompt idea).

✦ Npcing: There will be two npc threads. The "Random Encounters" thread is for characters to have a totally random encounter with an npc. These npcs will be fellow travelers from lands beyond. While they can't give much information about the group's status as Chosen Ones (that will happen during the Council) they can provide info about events in the Wilderlands beyond that may come to affect the squad in their travels. The "Specific Requests" thread will be for more specific issues your character might want to discuss with the Elves. While they'll push any Chosen Ones discussion off to the Council, they're willing to discuss issues with the characters, like if they have questions about having received magic, about being bound to their weapons, etc. The Rivendell Elves have heard a lot of gossip from all over and can potentially provide info based on things they've heard.

✦ Clothes: The group will not yet be fully equipped for their travels (that will happen upon leaving) but everyone will at least be given new clothes since theirs are dirty and sometimes torn. Characters without appropriate travel footwear will also be given light and sturdy boots that will somehow be in their size without their size being asked. They'll also be given basic toiletries like scissors that can be used to cut hair and beards. There are no razors, however, because the Elves don't need to shave so they don't keep them on hand.

Comments

[awfulcer]

[It's not the greatest joke in the world, but Dixon laughs anyway - mostly because he said almost those exact words when he first got here. It's not anything particularly raucous, just a pleasantly surprised chuff. It clicks about a second later that that means she's probably from a world at least passingly similar to his.

He pulls a folded stack of paper from inside his overcoat pocket, unfolds it, peels off a few pages and hands it to her. Then he takes the stub of his cigarette and flicks it off over the balcony, letting it fall the long, long way down into the river.]

Keep thinking that. I been here weeks and I'm still pretty lost. [Granted, she'll probably be quicker on the uptake than he is, mostly because everyone is quicker on the uptake than he is.] We're saving the world. Or the forest. Or the forest spirits? I'm not sure, but we're saving something, and every time we let our guard down evil witches or monsters attack us.

[That's the gist, at least. The boiled down gist.]

What's your name? I'm Dixon.

[cursemarked]

[She takes the offered paper, smoothing out the crease as best she can-- mostly it's just so she has something to do with her hands as she listens.] That's what the notebook is for.

[Which is why when he speaks more on it, she tucks the papers under her arm and opens the notebook to jot it down. 'Save the world/forest/spirits.'] Sounds about typical for this sort of thing... This is how stories always go, right? A little group of select special people set with a select special task? Now all we need is for everyone to fill in a stereotype.

[Her tone is deadpan, but not entirely disbelieving. She just taps her pencil against the page and sighs a little, shaking her head. Was this better or worse than where she came from?

Another glance up as he introduces himself and she jots his name down to remember it later] Rei. [Since he's clearly not Japanese, she'll just leave it at that. As an after thought she adds:] Pleased to meet you. Sorry. It's... been a while since I've worked with people...

[awfulcer]

Usually, as far as I figure. [He doesn't really want to consider which stereotype he's going to be filling. Village idiot, maybe. Or cannon fodder. He figures if he was handpicked for any other role the powers that be were drunk as hell.]

Don't worry about it. [He glances at her jotting down his name. He has his own collection of that on the inside of a comic book he grabbed back in Philly, a running list of everyone he knows is here, comments about them (not always polite), a tally of whether they're in the mirror or not. It's with his stuff now, or he'd be writing "Ray" down in the rapidly-dwindling blank space. He gives her a bit of a nod, like he's approving of her taking notes.]

There's too many of us for it to be a good story, though. I think we got around fifty people now? Something like that by my last count, but some of us are here and some of us are trapped in the mirrors. [He assumes she woke up with a mirror. He actually doesn't know what it's like on the other side; he seems to be one of the few who's never been snatched up to the Brugh.]

[cursemarked]

[Rei hums in acknowledgement and jots that down. About fifty people. Some here in this elf-y place and some--]

I'm sorry, did you say trapped in the mirrors? [She echoes in surprise and disbelief, suddenly feeling very wary of the mirror she has in the pocket of the clothes she's wearing. Her hand goes up to cover the spot where it is, mouth turned down in a frown.]

[awfulcer]

Yeah. [When he answers it out loud he seems to realizes how crazy the whole concept is. He's had a little bit to get used to it, and the mirrors discovery was lumped into quite a lot of disorienting magical stuff. There's only so far you can get thrown for a loop - once you're far enough, any new revelation has diminishing, if any, returns.] Don't worry, no one seems unhappy trapped. I guess there's some kind of relaxed dorm room back there.

[The shrug that accompanies that statement substitutes in for an explicit "I wouldn't know".]

Anyway. [He pulls his mirror out of his pocket.] You can talk to anyone here through this.

[He's not particularly keen to use his, and he tucks it quickly away. Last time he did he turned into a bit of a public spectacle, and he's still smarting.]

[cursemarked]

Can they... Can they get out? What do they do in there? [It seems weird to be gathering all these people and only half are off having adventures.

She pulls the mirror and looks it over a moment before placing it back in her pocket.] And if everyone has one, it's like having a phone, I guess.

[She feels like her life right now is just built on weird situation and the weight of her own sighs.]

So what exactly are we doing... Here? With the elves, I mean. And where are we going? Are we traveling somewhere specific?

[awfulcer]

No idea what they get up to, but they get let out sometimes. [The more Dixon explains it the more unsettled he looks, like all the potential pitfalls of a mirror world that only lets people out at random are suddenly starting to sink in. He taps his knuckle against his front teeth, fidgeting.

Then he gives her a somewhat embarrassed shrug.] I'm the wrong person to ask about that. I just go where people tell me we're going. And the group can't split up even if we try. Some kind of magic has us all strung together. You stray too far, you'll wind up back where most of the group is.

[So congrats, Rei - if you end up on anyone's bad side, you're stuck with them indefinitely.]

[cursemarked]

[This is so weird. She'll be talking to others and gathering what information she can, of course, to figure out more, but for now it's just... She'd really thought her life couldn't get any stranger.]

Of course it does... [Rei sighs softly.] I suppose it's better than losing someone and having to waste time searching for them. Magic... [Rei trails off, running a hand through her hair and resting it on the side of her neck, her eyes staring at a fixed point on one of the columns as she tries to think. After a moment she just shakes her head]

Anything else I should know? [She writes down about the 'straying too far' thing]

[awfulcer]

Magic, right? [Dixon chuckles as if it's funny, how completely at the whim they are to mysterious forces that don't seem to follow any predictable guidelines or offer any clarity. They're in kind of an endless freefall, allowing things to happen to them, accepting blindly because what are you going to do, think your way out of a game where you're only playing with half the rulebook?

He tightens his mouth a bit as he mentally checks boxes on all the things someone should know going in.] Some people have magic now when they didn't, and some of us got magical items when we woke up here. We've got no clue who's being picked up or why any of us got chose.

Anything we should know about you? Because one kid came in and was all "hi, I'm a vampire" at us.

[cursemarked]

[Rei figures that's a fair enough question, though she looks rather amused--if a bit disbelieving--at his example. A vampire?? At this rate she supposes anything is possible.]

Nothing that extreme. [She wonders if she should mention about the curse, even though she can sense it's not going to be a problem here in this entirely different world. But...That might come with awkward questions she doesn't feel like answering about, so in the end she slowly shakes her head.]

Nothing that I can think of... I'm pretty much a normal human, as far as I know. More or less. [Pause.] ...I can see ghosts?

[awfulcer]

[Honestly, if she'd just stuck to normal human, Dixon wouldn't have believed her. As far as he's concerned, he's the only "normal human" here. Even the medieval ones are like, medieval, and that's got to be some kind of abnormal.]

That might come in handy. We didn't get attacked by ghosts on the hill, at least, I don't think they were ghosts, but they looked like they might know ghosts. [It's a convoluted way of saying that half the shit they've faced looks like it belongs in a haunted house.]

[cursemarked]

Not ghosts, but looked like they might know ghosts... [Rei echoes this, looking amused, before she turns away to lean her forearms against the railing and lean out, staring at the scenery it really is quite beautiful and serene here. If only she had her camera...]

Well. I'll do what I can. It's not like I have much of a choice otherwise.

I can do some other things as well. If I touch an object, sometimes I can see... Memories, I suppose. Things associated with it. I can't always control it, but it could be useful.

And I guess if anyone needs a photographer for anything, I can do that too.

[awfulcer]

You know what I meant. [Dixon rolls his eyes a little, less at her than at himself. Then he perks up a bit.]

You got a camera with you? [It takes a moment for him to register the unusual nature of what she said right before that. She's not the first person here to say she could read memories, but she's the first to come in who seems unsurprised by the capability.]

Does that memory thing work with people too?

[cursemarked]

Unfortunately it didn't seem to come with me. [She does sound regrettable about that. She misses her camera!

His question makes her pause though and she crosses her arms lightly over her chest, debating. On one hand she wants to lie and not cause any troubles here, on the other hand it's probably better to get it out in the open, right?]

...Sometimes. It's easier with a spirit or a dead body, but it can work on living people sometimes too. Not that I'm particularly inclined to do that anyhow.

[awfulcer]

That's a shame. My phone and iPod came with me, but the phone don't work at all. Except for Bejeweled. And Angry Birds. [Which is the reason Dixon's phone, despite getting no signal and otherwise being a brick, is down seventy percent of the battery it came here with.]

Nah, doesn't sound like it'd be particularly fun. Half the people here seem to have dark pasts and secrets. [Dixon's fairly certain his own ranks very low on the awful background scale, whatever his facial burns might suggest, but he's still kept his under wraps. He's just not ready to talk about it with anyone.]